2016 Leaman Awards

*Last Updated 12/31/20223

2016 Films Seen: 103

Number of Films with 'A' or 'A+': 3

Key Films Still to See: n/a

Brief Summary: n/a

Not a "best of" list or a "favorite" list - but a list of the films and sequences (action, drama, comedy, & musical) that I think represent the best the year had to offer. So think of it as a strange mixture of favorite, best, and defining. Once you get to the top ten films, it definitely becomes more defined as a Top Ten list of the year. The number one film is my favorite of the year.

Honorable Mentions: 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi, Fences, Greater, Green Room, Love & Friendship

25. Anthropoid (B)

24. Don't Think Twice (B)

23. Ip Man 3 (B)

22. Doctor Strange (B)

21. Sully (B+)

20. Hell or High Water (B+)

19. Eye in the Sky (B+)

18. Hidden Figures (B+)

17. Hacksaw Ridge (B+)

16. O.J.: Made in America (B+)

15. 10 Cloverfield Lane (B+)

14. Sing Street (B+)

13. Captain America: Civil War (B+)

12. Manchester by the Sea (B+)

11. The Witch (B+)

THE TOP TEN

10. The Last Man on the Moon (A-): Over the last three decades the space program has received numerous documentaries & film treatments. While also capturing the glories, none have captured what was also given up as well as this one.

9. Lion (A-): Lion features a heck of a true story that's told with intelligence, patience (perhaps too much), & emotion. It’s a bummer that the second and third act (minus the final sequence) isn’t nearly as engaging as the first.

8. Queen of Katwe (A-): A lovely film that boasts heartwarming performances and beautiful glimpses of humanity. It rises above the usual biographical offerings through its special care in portraying the culture of Katwe: its beauty, hardships, and the special mindsets that come with generational poverty.

7. The Little Prince (A-): A lovingly animated and very moving adaptation of the French children’s masterpiece. I had never read the book until after seeing this, but I think the film captures well the importance of beauty, awe, and wonder ingrained in the source material.

6. Weiner (A-): A horrifying documentary. It depicts nearly every cynical suspicion we have about politicians: pride, narcissism, lies, spin, naked ambition, & personal vices. Ironically, the scariest part of the whole documentary might just be how human the entire enterprise feels.

5. Denial (A-): Based on a true story, this film recounts the British libel court battle between Penguin Books and and holocaust denier David Irving. Penguin Books published a book by Deborah Lipstadt calling out Irving's holocaust denials. The trial became a battleground for not just the historical case behind the holocaust, but the free speech case surrounding it as well. Further, there's the question of one should even engage with people who deny such things as the holocaust, does engaging dignify them, or does democracy and fairness mean we should? These are some of the big ideas here. Playing the holocaust writer Deborah Lipstadt is a fantastic Rachel Weisz and playing the holocaust denier is a charismatic and energetic Timothy Spall. I have to say, I'm fascinated by the implications of this story. One of the central aspects of dealing with the aftermath of a war is telling the story: who were the victors, who were the villains, what were the key decisions, moments, and events. The story of the German persecution and extermination of the Jewish people is a vital one to be told in the war's aftermath. Holocaust denier says it's just propaganda to get the state of Israel more funds and sympathy - it's the victors writing the story. How does a democratic society handle those, like Irving, who brashly and brutely deny such a vital and important part of the World War II story? A denial that spits on the tomb of every holocaust victim? I have to say, given our current world circumstances and the questions about election losses, these ideas are even more pressing. The trial itself is mostly a well executed affair. The dialogue is largely taken from straight from the transcripts and great care is taken to show the different legal strategies employed and the risks they all incur. One risk the film emphasizes is not bringing survivors in to testify, the thinking being that their strategy is to focus on Irving's lies, not on defending the entire Holocaust. Additionally, they don't want the spectacle of Irving trashing survivors, or their memory being incorrect, overlooked, or misremembered. It's smart and a brute reality. It's intelligent stuff that respects the viewers and engages us in the quandaries of the trial. In my holocaust category I quoted the holocaust survivor Elie Weisel, "For the survivor who chooses to testify, it is clear: his duty is to bear witness for the dead and for the living. He has no right to deprive future generations of a past that belongs to our collective memory. To forget would be not only dangerous but offensive; to forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time." This film demonstrates that the fight for truth is not a once and for all battle. It's a fight that every generation, every human brings up anew. *Commentary taken from my World War II Film Overview

4. Moana (A-): It might have a few knots, but is a beautifully animated & told yarn of how the world benefits when you pursue the intersection of your heart and God's

3. Miss Sloane (A): The best political thriller/drama since All The President's Men. It’s more straight up commercial, but it's really, really, fun. It features my favorite “this changes everything” twist ending of the year too.

2. Silence (A): Scorsese's Silence is an intelligent cinematic translation of Shusaku Endo's novel that retains its dynamic and troubling challenges to our normal conceptions of faith in Christ. It's every bit as moving and intellectually taxing as I remembered the novel.

1. Arrival (A): In a year where political dialogue became polarized in an unprecedented way (at least in my lifetime), it might not be a surprise that this film about the importance of communication connected so strongly with me. Arrival’s basic premise of trying to figure out whether alien visitors to our planet mean good or harm also managed to engagingly and cinematically explore the meaning of language and how it can shape not only our dialogues, but also how we essentially experience the world. The best science fiction film since Inception.

FAVORITE ACTION SEQUENCES OF THE YEAR

The Very Good:

"First Assault on the CIA Compound Leads to Slaughter" -13 Hours: Secret Soldiers of Benghazi
"Bucharest Chase: Steve & Black Panther Run Down the Winter Soldier" -Captain America: Civil War (Commentary)
"Elevator Fight: Ip Man vs. Thai Fighter" -Ip Man 3 (Commentary)
"Swat Tank Chase in Vegas" -Jason Bourne (Commentary)
"Wu Jing's Baton vs the Knife Assassin" -Kill Zone 2 (Commentary)
"Boat in a Storm Fight: Monkey vs. her Evil Sister" -Kubo and the Two Strings
"Construction Site Finale: Rescuing the President from Terrorists" -London Has Fallen
"Pier House: Fei-Hung & Master Lei Survive an Assassination Attempt" -Rise of the Legend
"Rainy Alley Fight: Wong Fei-Hung vs. North Sea Gang Leader & His Disciples" -Rise of the Legend
"Finale: The Battle of Scarif" -Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (Commentary)

The Great:

"Leipzig Airport: Superhero Showdown" -Captain America: Civil War (Commentary)
"Lagos Opening: Captain's Crew vs. Crossbones" -Captain America: Civil War (Commentary)
"Finale: Iron Man vs Captain America & Winter Soldier" -Captain America: Civil War (Commentary)
"New York Mirror Chase: Strange & Mordo vs. Kaecilius" -Doctor Strange (Commentary)
"Assaulting Hacksaw Ridge: Bunker to Bunker" -Hacksaw Ridge (Commentary)
"Ip Man vs. Mike Tyson" -Ip Man 3 (Commentary)
"Finale: Jaa and Wu Jing take out Boss Max Zhao" -Kill Zone 2 (Commentary)
"Serving a Warrant Leads to an Apartment Complex Shootout & Chase" -Triple 9

The Best: "Wing Chun Grandmaster Finale: Ip Man vs. Max Zhang" -Ip Man 3

Commentary: I had no idea I needed this matchup between Donnie Yen and Max Zhang until I got it. This is easily the best overall fight of the Ip Man franchise and has a real argument for being the best fight of Donnie Yen's career as well. Zhang plays a Wing Chun expert trying to establish his own presence and school and sees challenging Ip Man to a public fight as the fastest and best way to do it. At this point in his life, Ip Man believes he has nothing to prove and doesn't want to fight - eventually his wife pushes him to just get it over with. The fight takes place at Zhang's dojo and in three stages. The first stage is pole fight, then a short swords fight, and finally a hand to hand fight. The key theme here is that Zhang is really good, nearly Ip Man's equal, but loses each stage just by a hair's breadth. The pole fight is pretty good stuff but nothing I'd wax eloquently about. The fight really ramps (into all-time status) up once they fight using the short swords. The quickness of each fighter, number of moves in each take, and complicated choreography are really impressive here. It's as good as anything we got in that amazing Wu Jing knife fight we got in Kill Zone. The director finds the perfect balance of sitting back and letting us see these two professionals show off, while still looking to emphasize certain beats and strikes cinematically. I can't say enough about the short sword sequence, I think it's just mind-blowing. Surprisingly, the hand to hand sequence that follows isn't a comedown. The back and forth here is, in my humble opinion, the single best demonstration of cinematic Wing Chun. Zhang is every bit as good as Yen here and the chemistry they have is palpable. There are a few highlighted elbow strikes here and a sequence going up and down some stairs that stand out until you get to the ending beat. That beat is a nice embodiment of the the theme here as Zhang gets a nice hit on Ip Man's eye (similar to a move Ip Man did to Tyson) making it tough to see and following it up with rabbit punches (Ip Man's iconic move) that are just so close to hitting but don't land. Ip Man blocks the last one and finishes the fight off with a perfectly executed one-inch punch. It's like a cherry on the top of this perfect little 6 minute fight. *This commentary taken from my Donnie Yen Action Blog

FAVORITE DRAMATIC SEQUENCES OF THE YEAR

The Very Good:

"A Broken Bottle and a Race for the Door to Escape" -10 Cloverfield Lane
"Assassination Plot is Successful in Casablanca" -Allied
"Heydrich Assassination Goes Awry" -Anthropoid
"Making the Call to the General and Saving the World" -Arrival
"Rushing into the Rubble of Downtown Metropolis" -Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
"Blowout on the Deepwater Horizon" -Deepwater Horizon
"The Final Decision to Strike is Made and the Aftermath Witnessed" -Eye in the Sky
"Sitting Next to an Old Friend, but Being Miles Apart" -Fences
"Dory Finds the Shells Leading Her Back Home to Her Family" -Finding Dory
"I’ve Had Enough of Your Company Today" -Greater
"Robbery at the Post Branch Goes Awry and Leads to a Shootout in the Hills" -Hell or High Water
"An Anniversary Dinner Turns into an Awkward Birthday Dinner Tirade to Keep Cover" -The Infiltrator
"Po Decides to Sacrifice Himself to Save his Family" -Kung Fu Panda 3
"Daddy, When Will You Take Me Camping?" -The Last Man on the Moon
"A Childhood Food Brings back a Flood of Memory" -Lion
"Releasing the Stars and Returning to his Rose" -The Little Prince
"Dealing with the Aftermath in the Police Station" -Manchester by the Sea
"Personal Revelation About gun violence is Dropped During a Live TV debate" -Miss Sloane
"Telling his Nightmare, His Truth, Out Loud" -A Monster Calls
"The Pawn Becomes a Queen" -Queen of Katwe
"R2-SO Droid Sacrifices Itself for the Rebellion" -Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
"You Feed Us" -Silence
"Singing a Hymn While Dying" -Silence
"The Most Painful Act of Love" -Silence
"Quicksilver Saves the Entire School as it Explodes" -X-Men: Apocalypse
"Skipping past ‘Pineapple’ through the McDonalds Route" -Weiner
"A Son Dies while a Family Prays and a Hunt for a Witch Ensues" -The Witch
"An Old Grandmother Barters Wine with Roman Soldiers to Spare Joseph & his Family" -The Young Messiah
"The Young Messiah and Severus see each and Standoff in the temple" -The Young Messiah

The Great:

"Choosing to Marry and have a Child, Despite the Future" -Arrival
"Countering Irving on the Gas Chambers" -Denial
"I’m Standing Here Right Next to Ya" -Fences
"A Montage of Rescuing Soldiers at Night – Just One More" -Hacksaw Ridge
"Making the Familiar Walk as a Man…and Finding Home" -Lion
"Finale: Releasing the Stars" -The Little Prince
"You're Just Going to Let Me Go?" -Manchester by the Sea
"Sloane Drops her Trump Card in the Final Hearing" -Miss Sloane
"Moana Realizes Where the Heart Really Goes" -Moana
"Full Sequence of the Miracle Landing on the Hudson" -Sully

The Best: "There’s Nothing There" -Manchester by the Sea

Commentary: n/a

FAVORITE COMEDIC SEQUENCES OF THE YEAR

*Didn't keep great track of this category initially

The Very Good:

"Improv: New York Apartment" -Don't Think Twice
"Rules of Improv" -Don't Think Twice
"Filming 'The Riddle of the Model' Video" -Sing Street
"Saving Knoxville: From the Bowling Alley to a Russian Doll Factory" -Skiptrace

The Great:

The Best: n/a

Commentary:

FAVORITE MUSICAL SEQUENCES OF THE YEAR

*Very few musical songs to choose from